Gold for Luka, Poonia in Asian Grand Prix

Legendary sprinter PT Usha could hardly stop smiling as her trainee Tintu Luka hung on to win the 800 metres gold in the third leg of the Asian Grand Prix athletics at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai today.

Legendary sprinter PT Usha could hardly stop smiling as her trainee Tintu Luka hung on to win the 800 metres gold in the third leg of the Asian Grand Prix athletics at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai today.

Luka looked out of breath over the home stretch and her initial 50-metre lead helped her to stave off the challenge as she finished in two minutes, 03.67 seconds, ahead of Kazhakhstan’s Margarita Matsko (2:04.42) and Sushma Devi (2:04.42) of India.

Krishna Poonia (discus), ranked ninth in the world, clinched her third gold of the series with a throw of 59.94, way below her winning effort in Bangalore (61.64), but better than her Pune showing (59.51).

"I am happy that I won all three events, but I couldn’t do better tonight as my grip on the discus was not up to my expected levels. But, I am focused to win both Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. My main goal is to reach 65 meter mark", said Poonia who notched her personal best of 63.69 that she achieved in Santiago, Chile, last month.

The rather overcast conditions and showers today morning did not make for best of conditions for the athletes.